1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk apparatus for recording and reproducing data to and from an optical or magneto-optical disk, and more particularly to a disk apparatus provided with a driver IC for driving and controlling a data-position-specified driving mechanism for an optical pickup or the like and a loading mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some conventional disk apparatuses for optical or magneto-optical disks are provided with an automatic loading mechanism that permits automatic loading, including swapping and ejection, of disks. Such disk apparatuses provided with an automatic loading mechanism include those which are designed to handle a plurality of disks, wherein one selected from among those disks is automatically transported to a reproducing mechanism by an automatic loading mechanism.
In such a disk apparatus wherein data is recorded to and reproduced from one selected from among a plurality of disks, when an instruction is given to eject a disk while data is being recorded to another disk, according to a conventionally proposed technique (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-283309), the ejection operation is performed while no write operation is taking place. This helps to prevent an overlap between the ejection and write operations and thereby to reduce power consumption. A disk apparatus of this type is provided with a driver IC (integrated circuit) for controlling a transport mechanism at the time of disk loading, including disk swapping and ejection, and for controlling a spindle motor and a sled motor at the time of data recording and reproduction. This driver IC is configured as shown in FIG. 4.
The driver IC 100 shown in FIG. 4 is provided with: a loading driver 101 for controlling a loading motor 4 provided in a loading mechanism; a focus driver 102 for controlling the current that is fed to a focus coil 5 to move an objective lens 10a of an optical pickup 10 in a direction perpendicular to the disk surface of a disk 11; a tracking driver 103 for controlling the current that is fed to a tracking coil 6 to move the objective lens 10a of the optical pickup 10 in a direction radial to the disk 11; a sled driver 104 for driving and controlling a sled motor 7 that moves the optical pickup 10 in a direction radial to the disk 11 by using an intermediary transmission (not illustrated); and a spindle driver 105 for driving and controlling a spindle motor 8 that rotates the disk 11 in a direction circumferential thereto.
In an optical disk apparatus provided with the driver IC 100 configured as described above, a loading control signal, which indicates how to control the loading motor 4, is fed from a microcomputer 2, which controls the apparatus as a whole, via a signal input terminal 106 to the loading driver 101. Moreover, signals from the disk 11 are fed through the optical pickup 10 and an RF amplifier 9 to a DSP (digital signal processor) 3, which receives those signals as a tracking error signal and a focus error signal. The DSP 3 then controls operations for data recording and reproduction.
Moreover, a focus control signal, a tracking control signal, a sled control signal, and a spindle control signal indicating how to control the focus coil 5, tracking coil 6, sled motor 7, and spindle motor 8, respectively, are fed from the DSP 3 via signal input terminals 107 to 110 to the focus driver 102, tracking driver 103, sled driver 104, and spindle driver 105. Furthermore, a bias voltage is fed from the DSP 3 via a bias terminal 111 to the loading driver 101, focus driver 102, tracking driver 103, sled driver 104, and spindle driver 105.
In the driver IC 100 configured as shown in FIG. 4, however, when a loading operation is performed, whereas the focus driver 102, tracking driver 103, sled driver 104, and spindle driver 105, which receive the control signals from the DSP 3, are halted, the loading driver 101 needs to be kept operating with the bias voltage kept fed thereto. That is, to keep feeding the bias voltage to the loading driver 101, which receives the control signal from the microcomputer 2, the DSP 3 needs to be kept operating. This makes it necessary to keep supplying power to the DSP 3 even during a loading operation, and thus hampers reduction of power consumption.